The proliferation of digital devices, particularly mobile phones, poses ever greater challenges for corporates and designers wanting to present a consistent typographical ‘look and feel’ across all media. One solution is to look for web optimised fonts from a proven specialist in typography. Juergen Krufczyk has the details.
Ever since mobile devices took over from desktop PCs, technology has made a quantum leap forward in terms of how we see the written word. Significant higher screen resolutions on our phones, tablets and e-book readers are pleasing to the eye, especially when it comes to text and typography. Gone are the desktop publishing days of the 80s and 90s when bitmap fonts or different font formats such as TrueType and PostScript challenged consistent layouts and typography across computer platforms and even print.
- Typecast - Juergen Krufczyk
The difference between print and web typography is mostly related to media. In the printing world we take care of various grades of paper and printing methods. On the web the challenges are multiple screen types, such as LCD, OLED or E-Ink, and factors such as pixel density (the amount of pixels displayed within a physical section of screen) and different rendering such as greyscale and sub-pixels. Also fairly new to the web are OpenType features which offer a greater choice than standard character sets, with additions such as fractions or small caps. Ligatures (joined up characters) and glyphs further enable a more versatile typesetting.
The web has become a platform of mass participation in written culture. And we all want to see our written text in the best quality. The challenge becomes tricky when 100 per cent font conformity is essential on different computers, monitors, browsers, smart phones, websites, email, social media, as well as print. One key task for professionals such as marketing and corporate identity managers is to ensure exact font integrity eg a corporate typeface across all media having exactly the same appearance.
The most important new feature in web typography in recent years has been the arrival of web fonts. The key advantage of these is that a font can now be displayed as ‘indexable’ text on a computer or smart device. In the past this was only possible with so-called system fonts i.e. a group of typefaces licensed by the owner of the operating system such as Microsoft or Apple. As an example, Facebook uses either Lucida Grande or Tahoma depending on which system font it finds on any given computer.
‘Indexable’ text is not only much easier to use when creating websites but it also has the significant advantage that every word is recognisable by search engines such as Google. In the past, text was entombed in an image and excessive meta-tagging (assigning key words to an image within the HTML code of the page it sits on) was required.
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Companies, corporations and governments benefit greatly from the use of high quality web fonts – but how do you find them? One source for a large selection of optimised web fonts is the company Monotype. In recent years Monotype has acquired several type foundries including Linotype, Agfa Type Studio, Bitstream, Chinatype and ITC. They represent approximately 80 per cent of all professionally designed and trademarked typefaces in the world.
Of course anyone can find many fonts free of charge on the net. However, to achieve brand consistent typography across all platforms still requires a perfect combination of optimised fonts and technology. Companies also need to consider the legal aspect when using typefaces with registered trademarks and design. A significant number of Australian companies, publishers and government bodies already license their corporate fonts from well-established font foundries. The advantage is peace-of-mind in respect of design excellence, technical support and meeting legal requirements.
Being able to stand out in written communication, and in advertising on mobile devices in particular, is ever more important. According to market research from IDC, worldwide sales of tablets and smartphones outstripped desktop sales by 2:1 in 2013. Smartphone sales are expected to more than double from 1 billion in 2012 to more than 2 billion by 2015, and tablets to triple from 1.1 billion to about 3 billion.
In such rapidly changing market environments, companies are well-advised to review and improve the uniformity of their corporate design and typeface on all digital devices. If you would like more information on corporate typefaces and web fonts please contact webfont@icloud.com .